The 2022 season has been somewhat of a roller-coaster for former US Open champion Dominic Thiem.
After being sidelined from the Tour for months due to a right wrist injury, the Austrian returned to competitive tennis back in March by playing in a Challenger event in Spain. However, the comeback has been far from straightforward for Thiem who suffered first round defeats in six consecutive ATP events. To add to the frustration he only managed to win two sets in those six matches played.
It wasn’t until last week at the Bastad Open in Sweden that the 28-year-old finally managed to regain some of his momentum on the ATP Tour with a run to the quarter-finals. At the tournament, he defeated Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori and Spanish veteran Pablo Carreno Busta.
“In the spring it was not easy to stay positive as I lost one match after another,” Thiem said during an interview with atptour.com. “Also, the way I played, I felt it was not enough for the level of those guys. I went into those matches with the knowledge that I am not even able to win, so that was very difficult. Mentally it was not easy.”
Thiem has managed to regain some of his form in recent days after deciding to go through an additional training block with his team instead of playing at Wimbledon this year. He has been coached by former player Nicolas Massu since 2019 who is best known for winning two gold medals at the 2004 Olympic Games.
“After Roland Garros, I sat down with my team and said I needed another training block to get back to the basics and get somewhere close to my old level,” Thiem continued.
“Now it is getting nicer again. It was not that nice in the spring. It is very tough if you lose and go to the practice court for five days and then the next match you lose again. It is very tough.”
So far in his career, Thiem has won 17 ATP Tour titles and earned more than $29M in prize money. He is the first player in the Open Era to win a US Open final by coming back from two sets down and has recorded five or more wins over each member of the Big Three.
Despite his success on the Tour, he says his perspective of life as a player has changed since his injury.
“I feel now a bit like I did at the beginning of my career, where every win was something very special. I reached the quarter-finals in Bastad at an ATP 250 and it feels huge to me,” Thiem explains. “It was similar at the start of my career. When you are used to going deep, a match win is not as special anymore. But that is not the way it should be. The level is so high, all the players are playing so well, so every match win should be special and that is how I am feeling again now.”
As for the rest of this year, Thiem is hoping to return to the top of his game in the coming months. Due to his injury layoff and a series of disappointing results, he finds himself currently ranked 274th in the world.
“The main goal is to regain my best level by the end of the season. To play the way I was before when I step on court. To think I am able to win against any opponent,” he said. “That is not going to happen now or probably by the US Open, but by the end of the year, that is the goal.”
Thiem is currently playing at the Swiss Open where he defeated seventh seed Hugo Gaston 1-6, 6-1, 7-6(7), in his opening match on Tuesday.
